Zombie Hydra

To do: EBF5 and partially EBF2.

Zombie Hydra
Group	Dragons
Roles	Boss
Appearances	Epic Battle Fantasy 2 Epic Battle Fantasy 4 Epic Battle Fantasy 5

For its non-boss version in Epic Battle Fantasy 3, see Zombie Dragon.

"Keep killing it until it dies"

―"Zombie Hydra" medal description, EBF2

The Zombie Hydra is a boss in Epic Battle Fantasy 2 and 5, and an optional boss in Epic Battle Fantasy 4 since the Battle Mountain update.

Appearance

It appears as a multi-headed skeletal dragon with two, three or four long necks, numerous spiked spines, and a spike-tipped tail (which only appears during certain attacks). As with most multi-part enemies, each head counts as a separate foe; however, lore-wise they are to be taken as a single being.

In EBF4 the hydra has been completely redrawn, more notable changes include becoming whiter, compared to EBF2 grey, and the horns being merged with the skull into a single structure.

Overview

In all appearances, Zombie Hydra mainly favours powerful physical attacks and Dark magic, as well as Fire magic in EBF4 & 5. Its signature ability allows it to revive its heads when their HP is depleted - only by slaying all of its heads at once (or in a short succession) can this be averted. Every head has identical stats and abilities, besides any changes (such as via debuffs) that happen during the battle.

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

Zombie Hydra is the penultimate boss of the game, appearing in Stage 19. It has a balanced set of attacks, including physical, magical, and status-based assaults, as well as Grim Reaper — the proto-Instant Death spell which deals over 99999 damage to one of the players if it hits, killing them. Hydra's physical damage output and the Reaper will likely get the player a habit of using Auto-Revive, extremely helpful for the rest of the game.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

Zombie Hydra is located in the western tomb of Graybone Cemetery, and can only be reached with the Winged Boots. Unlike most optional bosses, there is no reward for killing the Hydra apart from the enormous amounts of experience and ability points accumulated from its reviving heads (while said to be revived, each new head increased the reward pool as if it was another enemy), and as such can be fought as an experience farm.

Unlike many returning bosses, the Zombie Hydra has undergone significant changes in appearance and abilities. It has three heads instead of two (likely to compensate for the increased player headcount), can cast Fire spells, and now has twice as much Instant Death abilities. Each head can also deal enormous physical damage, well able of killing one of the players at full health if caught off guard. Additionally, if any of the heads suffers from a powerful attack, it will detach from its spinal cord, permanently increasing its Evade by 50%. Much like its EBF2 counterpart, the Zombie Hydra is able to regenerate its severed heads, requiring all three heads to be killed within one or two turns to be defeated.

A four-headed Zombie Hydra appears as the final opponent of Battle Mountain's Miniboss Marathon. Oddly, the first head to be destroyed will not be revived, while the other heads revive normally.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

Zombie Hydras appear in the late-game on two occasions. First they appear in a cave in The Rapture guarding the Earth Orb; this Zombie Hydra has two heads. On the second occasion, they appear in The Beyond blocking the passageway to the final boss screen; this Zombie Hydra has three heads.

The Zombie Hydra now has new attacks including Gravity Surge, Screamer, and Sacrifice. Tail Crush has slightly more accuracy and The Reaper now does noticeable damage when the instant death doesn’t happen. That said, Triple Bite can now only be used when decapitated, Berserked, or Syphoned, Tail Crush’s accuracy is no longer increased on Hard or Epic, and The Reaper has less accuracy. Keeping up with the theme, it can revive its heads, meaning all heads need to be killed within two turns.

Defeating the 3-headed Zombie Hydra on Epic difficulty rewards the Triple Death medal.

Statistics

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

...

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

	Zombie Hydra	EBF4
	Uses dark, fire and instant-death attacks. Summons more Zombie Hydra Heads, when others are killed. Evade increases if decapitated.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP
	1666	6	4	6	4	4	4	666	25	50	260	8
Elemental Resistance
	-100%	-	-	-	200%	-	-	-	-100%	200%
Status Resistance
	-	80%	100%	-	-	-	-	80%	-	-	-	80%
Debuff Resistance
	-	-	-	-	-	-

Item Drop Rate
Icon						-	-
Name	Solid Spike	Bottled Darkness	Dark Matter	Burger	Orange Juice	-	-
Chance	100%	20%	10%	10%	10%	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Poison	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
2.24%	-0.48% per stack, up to -4.32%	4%	-5.(3)%
Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

	Zombie Hydra	EBF5
	If you chop off a head, its evade will increase. If you kill a head, the remaining heads will replace it.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP	Catch
	1777	4	4	6	4	4	4.4	333	22	22	200	15	3
Elemental Resistance
	-80%	-	-	-	50%	-	-	-	-80%	200%
Status Resistance
	-	70%	100%	-	70%	-	-	-	-	-	-	100%
Debuff Resistance
	-	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%

Item Drop Rate
Icon				-	-
Name	Razor Claw	Bone Spike	Dark Matter	-	-
Chance	50%	75%	5%	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Scorch	Poison	Virus	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
1.89% per stack, up to 17.01%	3.78% per stack, up to 34.02%	0.45% per stack, up to 4.05%	0.9% per stack, up to 8.1%	Immune	-10%
Damage taken from first four is decreased by 30% on Easy and 65% on Zero difficulties. Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

Before the v2 update, had 1555 base HP instead.

Statistics with More Foe Resistance enabled.

	Zombie Hydra	EBF5
	If you chop off a head, its evade will increase. If you kill a head, the remaining heads will replace it.

Statistics
Base Statistics								Exp	AP	SP	Gold	Hit2HP	Catch
	1777	4	4	6	4	4	4.4	333	22	22	200	15	3
Elemental Resistance
	200%	-	-	-	200%	-	-	-	-80%	200%
Status Resistance
	-	70%	100%	-	70%	-	-	-	-	-	-	100%
Debuff Resistance
	-	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%

Item Drop Rate
Icon				-	-
Name	Razor Claw	Bone Spike	Dark Matter	-	-
Chance	50%	75%	5%	-	-

Status Damage
Damage taken from status effects, in % of maximum health (per turn), including elemental resistances:
Burn	Scorch	Poison	Virus	Doom (if Death fails)	Regen
-1.05% per stack, up to -9.45%	-2.1% per stack, up to -18.9%	-0.9% per stack, up to -8.1%	-1.8% per stack, up to -16.2%	Immune	-10%
Damage taken from first four is decreased by 30% on Easy and 65% on Zero difficulties. Final damage is randomized by ±5% (except for Doom) and rounded down.

The head detaches when hurt for >25% of maximum health or >5% when it's <32%, which increases its base Evade by 50% and makes it immune to Earth.

Attacks and Abilities

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

(need exact stats instead)

• Bites a player for medium physical damage, with a chance to debuff their Defence.
• Bites a single player 3 times for high physical damage without side effects. On Epic difficulty, the number of bites is limited only by luck.
• Stabs a player with the tip of its tail, dealing extreme physical damage.
• Casts Haunt, hitting both players several times for moderate Dark damage, trying to debuff all main stats. Is available only on Hard and Epic difficulties.
• Casts Dark Flare, hitting both players for moderate damage and a chance of Syphoning them.
• Casts The Dead, hitting both players for moderate Poison damage and a chance of Poisoning them.
• Casts Grim Reaper, which inflicts 99 999 999 damage (displayed as 99999) to either player.
• Revives the other head with full health and resets any statuses it had.

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Bite	Single	70		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Triple Bite	Single	138/3		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Tail Crush	Single	180		----	100%	--		40%	10%	10%
Notes: On Hard and Epic difficulties, accuracy is increased to 80%. Isn't used once the head detaches.
Hellfire	Single	45		100%	50%	3x		100%	10%	10%
Fire Spin	All	45		100%	100% 50%	5x 15%		130%	0%	10%
Antimatter	Centered	80		75%	--	--	--	120%	10%	10%
Grim Reaper	Single	30		50%	100%	--		40%	10%	10%
Revive	Dead head	--	--	----	--	--	--	--	--	--
Notes: Revives a head with full health and clears any (de)buffs and status effects it had, including the Evade boost. This ability requires a turn to passively "charge" it, separate for each alive head. Charge and usage condition is "less than 3 foes are present" — thus, the first head to be slayed in the Battle Mountain variant of the battle will stay dead.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

Attack List
Attack	Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
Bite	Single	100		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Triple Bite	Single	200/3		----	--	--	--	100%	10%	10%
Notes: Can only be used when decapitated, or when Syphoned or Berserked.
Tail Crush	Single	250		----	100%	1x		50%	10%	10%
Notes: Cannot be used while decapitated.
The Reaper	Single	120		100%	100%	1x		25%	10%	10%
Fire Spin	All	55		100%	70% 100%	15% 3x		100%	10%	10%
Hellfire	Single	50		100%	66%	3x		100%	10%	10%
Notes: Can only be used on Hard or Epic difficulties.
Screamer	All	40		100%	100%	20%		200%	10%	10%
Gravity Surge	All	30/3		100%	50%	25%		100%	10%	10%
Antimatter Flux	Centered	65/3		100%	100%	25%		--	--	--
Notes: Added to its movepool in the v2 update.
Sacrifice	All	30		100%	100% 50%	20% 3x		150%	10%	10%
Respawn	None	--	--	----	--	--	--	--	--	--
Notes: Spawns a new head with full health to replace a dead one. This ability requires a turn to passively "charge" it after a head has been killed, separate for each alive head. Does not take up the head's action, cannot be used if unable to act due to Stun (or catch score >55 and all players being Lovable while it's Syphoned). The new head will be at the same level as the user.

Battle logic

The following describes general logic of the enemy and attack patterns, with chances of each attack to be used. Conditions are listed from highest to lowest priority unless specified otherwise.

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

(insert data here)

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

• Berserked or/and Syphoned → Triple Bite;
• Decapitated → Bite (2/8), Triple Bite (2/8), Hellfire (1/8), Fire Spin (1/8), Antimatter (1/8), Grim Reaper (1/8).
• Normal → Bite (2/8), Tail Crush (2/8), Hellfire (1/8), Fire Spin (1/8), Antimatter (1/8), Grim Reaper (1/8).

Getting hurt for >16% HP in a single hit breaks this head's neck/spinal cord, boosting its base Evade by 50%.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

Action

• If Syphoned, catch score >55, and all players are Lovable → Nothing;
• If catch score >55 and all players are Lovable;
  • <49% HP → Screamer (2/6), Gravity Surge (1/6), Antimatter Flux (1/6), Sacrifice (2/6);
  • Otherwise → Gravity Surge (1/4), Antimatter Flux (1/4) Sacrifice (2/4);
• If Syphoned or Berserked → Triple Bite;
• If the head has been decapitated → Bite* (1/2);
  • If playing on Hard or Epic → The Reaper (4/40), Hellfire (3/40), Fire Spin (3/40);
    • <49% HP → Screamer (2/24), Gravity Surge (1/24), Antimatter Flux (1/24), Sacrifice (2/24);
    • Otherwise → Gravity Surge (1/16), Antimatter Flux (1/16), Sacrifice (2/16);
  • Otherwise → The Reaper (2/20), Fire Spin (3/20);
    • <49% HP → Screamer (2/24), Gravity Surge (1/24), Antimatter Flux (1/24), Sacrifice (2/24);
    • Otherwise → Gravity Surge (1/16), Antimatter Flux (1/16), Sacrifice (2/16);
• Otherwise → Bite* (1/4), Tail Crush (1/4);
  • If playing on Hard or Epic → The Reaper (4/40), Hellfire (3/40), Fire Spin (3/40);
    • <49% HP → Screamer (2/24), Gravity Surge (1/24), Antimatter Flux (1/24), Sacrifice (2/24);
    • Otherwise → Gravity Surge (1/16), Antimatter Flux (1/16), Sacrifice (2/16);
  • Otherwise → The Reaper (2/20), Fire Spin (3/20);
    • <49% HP → Screamer (2/24), Gravity Surge (1/24), Antimatter Flux (1/24), Sacrifice (2/24);
    • Otherwise → Gravity Surge (1/16), Antimatter Flux (1/16), Sacrifice (2/16);

* Bite becomes Triple Bite when decapitated and <32% HP.

Before the v2 update, the chance to use Antimatter Flux was taken by Sacrifice instead.

Counter (only if Counter-Attacking Foes is enabled)

• If the head has been decapitated → 100% → Bite;
• Otherwise → 25%;
  • If Syphoned → Bite;
  • If playing on Hard/Epic → The Reaper (4/10), Hellfire (3/10), Fire Spin (3/10);
  • Otherwise → The Reaper (2/5), Fire Spin (3/5).

Additionally, whenever the number of Hydra heads is lower than what it was at the start of the battle, the Hydra will charge up it's Respawn ability and then use it on its next turn (neither the charge up or the actual Respawn take up the Zombie Hydra's action). Respawn cannot be used or charged if the Zombie Hydra is unable to act, either due to being Stunned or due to its catch score >55 and all players being Lovable while the Hydra is Syphoned. On Foe Remix, the Zombie Hydra has a 50% chance to summon a Blaze Hydra instead of a Zombie Hydra when using Respawn.

Strategy

Epic Battle Fantasy 2

Don't underestimate their revival ability: if one head is defeated, the other can revive it with full HP. Consequently, you must carefully manage the two heads' HP in order to bring them down in rapid succession, preferably in a single turn. This can be complicated by any automatic attack skills equipped by Matt and Natalie.

Defensively, the main concern is the Grim Reaper spell, which can instantly kill either of your characters if it hits, regardless of their health. On higher difficulties, its success rate becomes dangerously high — if both heads use it simultaneously, the fight can end before it really even begins. Thus, it is advised to keep Auto-Revive up as much as possible (via using Natalie's Revive on an alive player, and keeping her Magic Attack buffed up for more health restored upon revival); ideally, you should have a few turns of Auto-Revive left from the previous battle. Survivor and Angel skill bonuses may help, but they cannot be relied on much.

The boss has a significant and easily accessible weakness: both Grim Reaper and Revive, along with other magical abilities, can and should be blocked by simply Syphoning the heads (preferably via Rune Blade's Unleash, for guaranteed application), significantly simplifying the fight and allowing to ditch Barrier/Magic Defence buffs, though Auto-Revive is still welcome, and Protect/Defence buffs become vital to endure Hydra's remaining attacks.

However, On Epic difficulty there's still a chance to get a Game Over no matter how you play: if the Hydra chooses to use its multi-bite attack over and over and its prolongs enough to kill, you'll at some point run out of revival methods. You may try to Blind the heads to reduce their hit rate, but it's more reliable to focus on one head and kill it before it causes much trouble. Kyun (Natalie's Limit Break) can be used to create a breathing room for the players in a tight situation, though it might be better to save Limit Breaks for the soon final boss (as in EBF2 they take longer to charge each time one is used). When one head is down, the battle is basically won — as long as you keep the other head Syphoned, it will not cast Revive or use multi-target attacks, so it shouldn't pose big problems to defeat it and finish the battle.

As Zombie Hydra is affected by the Dispel handling bug, Dispelling a head on Epic difficulty will decrease its physical strength by ≈11.7% (not stackable with itself) for the whole battle. It pairs well with the possibility to restrict the boss to use only physical attacks. (On this foe, the bug will not have any effect on lower difficulties.)

Epic Battle Fantasy 4

Preparation

Unfortunately, the boss can no longer be easily Syphoned, yet getting high resistance in both Dark and Fire elements will nullify most of Zombie Hydra's magical damage output, possibly enabling players to go without Magic Defence buffs. The rest of equipment should boost Defence and HP as much as possible (without increasing vulnerability to Fire and Dark), since the Hydra's physical damage output is staggeringly high. As one more upgrade from the EBF2 version of the boss, Hydra can now use three (four in the Battle Mountain fight) Instant Death abilities on the same turn — make sure to resist them too, especially since Dark and Death resistances often come in pair.

Offensively, you may want Fire and Holy-based weapons to exploit the Zombie Hydra's severe weaknesses. If you're worried about setting off their Evade boost, however, you may want to focus on weapons that raise your defences and relevant elemental resistances. As Hydra's revival ability can no longer be blocked, the only way to win is to bring the heads to low health and then slay them all in one or two turns before they revive — watch out for counterattacks to not kill an almost dead head too early. Nuke and Supernova, being quite strong on their own and even stronger when affected by the Fire weakness of the boss, work well for finishing the fight, especially when both are used in a single turn or/and are further boosted by equipping a Fire-elemental weapon.

Battle

Even with high Defence and corresponding buffs, the Zombie Hydra's tail crush and triple bite still deal extreme damage. Your best bet is to buff own Evade (via Guardian, Reflex or/and Energy Drinks) and reduce their Accuracy (via Solar Flare, Sand Dune, Coal Bat summon or/and the Tired status effect) to decrease their hit rate, as well as frequently apply Auto-Revive or/and Morale to guarantee survival if the attack hits, hoping the other heads won't pick off a weakened player.

The Zombie Hydra's high weaknesses to Fire and Holy make it an easy target for spells like Judgement and Eruption. Hellfire, as the greatest non-limit single-target source of Fire damage in the game, may seem like an attractive spell, but it may inflict Berserk on the target — and empowered physical attacks from this juggernaut may prove more trouble than it's worth. Plus these spells will likely break off the head's spinal cords, increasing their Evade. The way to prevent that is to use multi-hit abilities instead, such as Legend with Heaven's Gate or Magma Hammer, as well as Bullet Hell. The Evade boost can also be circumvented with high accuracy abilities (such as Judgement), buffing own Accuracy, or/and lowering enemy Evade (via Bind and Tired).

If farming for experience, a good idea is to try to keep all the heads at low HP in case the party is starting to get overwhelmed by the Hydra to quickly finish off the fight with a Limit Break. Alternatively, switch the difficulty to Easy — it wouldn't impact experience gain, while making the boss' damage output a non-issue.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

...

Summon

In EBF5, the foe can be captured to be used as a summon. It casts an empowered version of The Reaper against all enemies.

	Zombie Hydra							SP
	Instantly kills all foes, or if that fails, hits them with some physical dark damage.							124	Cured
Target	Power	Type	Element	Status Effect			Acc	Crit	RdF
All	100		100%	200%	--		150%	10%	10%
Note: Before the v2 update, cost 144 SP instead.

Trivia

• The Zombie Hydra likely inspired the Zombie Dragon enemy in Epic Battle Fantasy 3; both creatures have the same sprite and almost all of the same attacks.
  • One of the final enemy encounters in EBF3 is a pair of Zombie Dragons, replicating the original Zombie Hydra battle, minus revival and easy Syphoning.
  • The Zombie Hydra may also have inspired the Pyrohydra boss in EBF3.
• The Zombie Hydra's theme in EBF2 is "Twins of Duality".
• In EBF2, the Zombie Hydra's roars are taken from the eponymous character of the Godzilla film series.